Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

311–320 of 342 posts

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#311

Post by balladeer »

18pfsmt wrote: post #308
oh_sigh wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ladders and breakdown of what is required at each position are well known and talked about frequently, especially around performance review time. If you're a googler and don't know what's on your ladder you aren't paying attention

I don't have any Google experience, but from what I've gathered over the years, there are always unwritten rules. Not everyone follows the spec. Often times, the spec even seems intentionally incomplete in retrospect.

There are almost always unwritten rules; everywhere.

For example everyone says value "work life balance is balanced here and encouraged". But irrespective of whether they actually do it or not - if the two people output around the same ballpark but one is visible as more serious/responsible and seems more invested usually by virtue of more hours at work that becomes more "visible" than the "casual" 7-8 hr person with the same output.

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#312

Post by balladeer »

what_ever wrote: post #234
vijaybritto wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using a telephone number is impractical? That's our identity in the third world. I think they are focused on the developing world in this.

Some of the people here are in a bubble. There are billions of people in the 3rd world countries who are now coming online and they will never have a GMail account in their life. But they will have a Facebook account and they will have Whatsapp. So many of my relatives started using internet after Jio made it so cheap and none of them use Hangouts, Allo, GMail to communicate. But everyone is on Whatsapp and everyone…

I am from a rural part of India and everybody has a Jio phone and everybody is on WhatsApp and Facebook. Most of them don't even know what is email and I don't know anyone who uses email or any other chat service other maybe Hike in rare cases. I was surprised since they already have Facebook and it would have required an email.

I often get disapproving looks when they realise I am not on Facebook :)

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#313

Post by balladeer »

Teckla wrote: post #249
what_ever wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you really need to check how people use Internet in India, Indonesia and other Asian/African countries. I doubt anyone uses laptop or desktop PC unless it's needed for work. And Internet cafe is a thing of the past. Having wifi but no cellular signal is such a rare usecase.

What I'm saying is that telephone number as ID is fine, but non-telephone number as ID should be supported, too. They should be trying to include everyone, telephone and non-telephone users alike.

I am from the same place and what what_ever is trying to say, I think, is that in these places mobile number is pretty much the identity and username and emails are largely irrelevant for the majority and when I say that majority that's like overwhelming majority and they are coming online for the first and they really don't have time or any interest to learn about email and messaging protocols.

For example, we recently launched UPI payments - that's like a banking address sort of thing (you can send from it and request too) and you usually get your UPI address like this "9876543210@upi". The number part is simply the 10 digit mobile number and that's it.

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#314

Post by balladeer »

vijaybritto wrote: post #290
sorenjan wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't live in the third world, and I don't think any new messaging service should focus on that limited use case. I'm pretty sure Google focused on India with Allo, but what's the point of focusing on one market when you're a global internet giant? I mainly use Hangouts for messaging, because I use the "desktop client" (Chrome extension) more than the mobile app. It would be possible to let people use both phone nu…

Please understand that the size of the population which uses this limited use case in my country is greater than multiple western countries' populations combined. I've been a developer for nearly 7 years and make a good amount of money in my country. Yet I've never touched an airplane. I'm telling this to point out the difference in living styles between the two zones of earth. All tech companies are rushing to captu…

Wow. That's surprising. I am from north India - based in Bangalore - and I fly almost every other month.

Are you from a remote/small town or like tier 2-3 city? Freelancing maybe? As for the questions - it just got me curious.

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#315

Post by balladeer »

avip wrote: post #295
SubNoize wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that + a desktop client/web app is all anyone wishes for, how can they be do blind and stupid.

Hangouts has all that. What's wrong with hangouts? Why should it be replaced with something "newer"? Why does Google HO keep getting worse?

Hangouts doesn't have a desktop app.

PS. Please don't call that chrome window a desktop app.

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#316

Post by bestnameever »

eigenvector wrote: post #29

RCS is an improvement to SMS but it does not address the core limitations: it is owned and controlled by carriers, so your ability to contact someone is entirely dependent on that user's carrier. It is tied to a single, physical device. WhatsApp shot to popularity because it was the opposite of SMS: an entirely over-the-top service that everyone could use, on any platform, without the consent, extra billing or buggy…

> without having to wonder whether it's going to work when I hit 'send'. Hi Bob, did you get my photo? Sorry, it didn't go through, Bob's carrier in Bangladesh has set limits on photo size and mine was too big.

Pretty sure you'll know prior to sending whether Bob is able to receive the message by just seeing the message is being sent by RCS.

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#317

Post by Markoff »

X-Istence wrote: post #267
nostromo wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but nobody around here uses SMS or MMS for person to person contact Where are you located? Mac/iOS Messages and/or SMS is my primary way of talking with friends and family. That seems pretty normal for my age range 25-45 and location (Seattle).

Head on over to Europe, and: > Ik steur je wel even een appje (I'll send you an message on WhatsApp) is the norm in The Netherlands. My entire family, extended family, and everyone around them is all on WhatsApp. While I communicate with iMessage/SMS with friends in the US, that's not the case outside of the US. Everyone seems to have WhatsApp, most people don't use Google hangouts or other services alongside that, l…

i am curious, where does it say "whatsapp" in dutch? you don't use international names?

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#318

Post by Markoff »

havetocharge wrote: post #156
stephenr wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can take “messaging” out of that first sentence.

Bing and Apple Maps here we come?

more like Maps.me or Osmand, i find first superior to anything on android

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#319

Post by wink »

jayd16 wrote: post #307
SamWhited wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you say it's not a good mobile protocol? It had some problems in the early 2000s on mobile, but these days it has stream management similar to TCPs and XML compresses very well. As I mentioned in another comment, there are people running it over very low bandwidth HF radio, if it works well there it works well over phones, but I'd be curious to see why people still think otherwise. (Google Talk, naturally,…

What service is using it at scale these days? I can't really think of a popular user. After a certain point it just becomes a headache. When I was working with ejabberd clusters servicing mobile clients it worked but I've had a lot less pain just using a custom protocol over websockets. My personal experience also seems to be mirrored throughout the industry as all the big players eventually move away from xmpp.

All big players who have an interest in building a walled garden - yes, that sums up "all big players".

GTalk was awesome while it was federated.

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#320

Post by Markoff »

bb88 wrote: post #12
tallanvor wrote: post #6

Can anyone explain why I should be interested in RCS, though? It seems like it's more designed to let carriers try and stem the flow of customers switching to other options, and I don't really see what benefits it offers me.

Years ago 1998ish(?), there was a fight to open up chat applications AIM, ICQ, YIM, etc. We had to have 20 apps to chat with each other. Fast forward 20 years, and here we are again, FB Messenger, Kik, WhatsApp, Allo, Signal, Telegram, SMS, Slack, etc. At least this appears to be a "standard" that everyone can use again.

no, you didn't, there was Miranda and later Trillian and Imo.im combining all these messengers in one app

I remember around 2012 it was also great time, I could chat with my Skype, Facebook and Gtalk contacts from within Outlook.com website thanks to XMPP, the best part was it acted like proxy so i could reach the people even though these services were blocked in China, then Goggle and Facebook decided to kill it and I stopped using messaging in outlook.com

Post reply on HN